Thomas Jefferson on Politics and Government

Inalienable Rights

"We hold these truths to be self-evident,
that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with
inherent and inalienable rights; that among these, are life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted
among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that
whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the
right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government,
laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such
form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness."
--Declaration of Independence as originally written by Thomas
Jefferson, 1776. ME 1:29, Papers 1:315

The Nature
and Source
of Our Rights

"Man [is] a
rational animal, endowed by nature with rights and with an innate sense of
justice." --Thomas Jefferson to William Johnson, 1823. ME
15:441

"A free people [claim] their rights as
derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief
magistrate." --Thomas Jefferson: Rights
of British America, 1774. ME 1:209, Papers 1:134

"Some other natural rights... [have] not
yet entered into any declaration of rights." --Thomas Jefferson to John W. Eppes, 1813. ME 13:272

"Of liberty I would say that, in the
whole plenitude of its extent, it is unobstructed action according to our
will. But rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within
limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the
limits of the law,' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so
when it violates the right of an individual."
--Thomas Jefferson to Isaac H. Tiffany, 1819.

The
Right
to
Life
and
Liberty

"Under the law of nature, all men are
born free, every one comes into the world with a right to his own person,
which includes the liberty of moving and using it at his own will. This is
what is called personal liberty, and is given him by the Author of nature,
because necessary for his own sustenance."
--Thomas Jefferson: Legal Argument, 1770. FE 1:376

"If [God] has made
it a law in the nature of man to pursue his own happiness, He has left him
free in the choice of place as well as mode, and we may safely call on the
whole body of English jurists to produce the map on which nature has traced
for each individual the geographical line which she forbids him to cross in
pursuit of happiness." --Thomas
Jefferson to John Manners, 1817. ME 15:124

"The evidence of [the] natural right [of
expatriation], like that of our right to life, liberty, the use of our
faculties, the pursuit of happiness, is not left to the feeble and sophistical
investigations of reason, but is impressed on the sense of every man. We do
not claim these under the charters of kings or legislators, but under the King
of Kings." --Thomas Jefferson to John
Manners, 1817. ME 15:124

"That liberty [is pure] which is to go to
all, and not to the few or the rich alone." --Thomas Jefferson to Horatio
Gates, 1798. ME 9:441

"In a government bottomed on the will of
all, the life and liberty of every individual citizen becomes interesting to
all." --Thomas Jefferson: 5th Annual Message, 1805. ME 3:390

"I would rather be exposed to the
inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a
degree of it." --Thomas Jefferson to Archibald Stuart, 1791. ME 8:276

"Being myself a warm zealot for the
attainment and enjoyment by all mankind of as much liberty as each may
exercise without injury to the equal liberty of his fellow citizens, I have
lamented that... the endeavors to obtain this should have been attended with
the effusion of so much blood." --Thomas Jefferson to Jean Nicholas Demeunier,
1795. FE 7:13

The Pursuit of Happiness

"The Giver of life gave it for happiness
and not for wretchedness." --Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, 1782. ME 4:196,
Papers 6:186

"Perfect happiness, I believe, was never
intended by the Deity to be the lot of one of his creatures in this world; but
that he has very much put in our power the nearness of our approaches to it,
is what I as steadfastly believe." --Thomas Jefferson to John Page, 1763. ME
4:10, Papers 1:10

"The freedom and happiness of man...
[are] the sole objects of all legitimate government." --Thomas Jefferson to
Thaddeus Kosciusko, 1810. ME 12:369

"[It is a] great truth that industry,
commerce and security are the surest roads to the happiness and prosperity of
[a] people." --Thomas Jefferson to Francisco Chiappe, 1789. Papers 15:405

"The only orthodox object of the
institution of government is to secure the greatest degree of happiness
possible to the general mass of those associated under it." --Thomas Jefferson
to M. van der Kemp, 1812. ME 13:135

"I sincerely pray that all the members of
the human family may, in the time prescribed by the Father of us all, find
themselves securely established in the enjoyment of life, liberty, and
happiness." --Thomas Jefferson: Reply to Ellicot Thomas, et al., 1807. ME
16:290

"[Our] principles [are] founded on the
immovable basis of equal right and reason." --Thomas Jefferson to James
Sullivan, 1797. ME 9:379

"An equal application of law to every
condition of man is fundamental." --Thomas Jefferson to George Hay, 1807. ME
11:341

"The most sacred of the duties of a
government [is] to do equal and impartial justice to all its citizens."
--Thomas Jefferson: Note in Destutt de Tracy, "Political Economy," 1816. ME
14:465

"To unequal privileges among members of
the same society the spirit of our nation is, with one accord, adverse."
--Thomas Jefferson to Hugh White, 1801. ME 10:258

"In America, no other distinction between
man and man had ever been known but that of persons in office exercising
powers by authority of the laws, and private individuals. Among these last,
the poorest laborer stood on equal ground with the wealthiest millionaire, and
generally on a more favored one whenever their rights seem to jar." --Thomas
Jefferson: Answers to de Meusnier Questions, 1786. ME 17:8

"Of distinction by birth or badge,
[Americans] had no more idea than they had of the mode of existence in the
moon or planets. They had heard only that there were such, and knew that they
must be wrong." --Thomas Jefferson: Answers to de Meusnier Questions, 1786. ME
17:89

"[The] best principles [of our republic]
secure to all its citizens a perfect equality of rights." --Thomas Jefferson:
Reply to the Citizens of Wilmington, 1809. ME 16:336

"What is true of every member of the
society, individually, is true of them all collectively; since the rights of
the whole can be no more than the sum of the rights of the individuals."
--Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1789. ME 7:455, Papers 15:393

"Nothing... is unchangeable but the
inherent and unalienable rights of man." --Thomas Jefferson to John
Cartwright, 1824. ME 16:48

"The principles on which we engaged, of
which the charter of our independence is the record, were sanctioned by the
laws of our being, and we but obeyed them in pursuing undeviatingly the course
they called for. It issued finally in that inestimable state of freedom which
alone can ensure to man the enjoyment of his equal rights." --Thomas Jefferson
to Georgetown Republicans, 1809. ME 16:349

"Natural rights [are] the objects for the
protection of which society is formed and municipal laws established."
--Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, 1797. ME 9:422

"Can the liberties of a nation be thought
secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds
of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God? That they are not
to be violated but with His wrath?" --Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia
Q.XVIII, 1782. ME 2:227

"Questions of natural right are triable
by their conformity with the moral sense and reason of man." --Thomas
Jefferson: Opinion on French Treaties, 1793. ME 3:235

"It is a principle that the right to a
thing gives a right to the means without which it could not be used, that is
to say, that the means follow their end." --Thomas Jefferson: --Thomas
Jefferson: Report on Navigation of the Mississippi, 1792. ME 3:180

"The right to use a thing comprehends a
right to the means necessary to its use, and without which it would be
useless." --Thomas Jefferson to William Carmichael, 1790. ME 8:72

"The Declaration of Independence... [is
the] declaratory charter of our rights, and of the rights of man." --Thomas
Jefferson to Samuel Adams Wells, 1819. ME 15:200

"I shall see with sincere satisfaction
the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural
rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties."
--Thomas Jefferson: Reply to Danbury Baptists, 1802. ME 16:282

"The God who gave
us life gave us liberty at the same time; the hand of force may destroy, but
cannot disjoin them." --Thomas Jefferson: Rights of British America, 1774. ME
1:211, Papers 1:135